New at Reason

David Weigel | April 12, 2006

Jacob Sullum calculates the pain of tax day.

Comments

|4.12.06 @ 8:56AM|#

I've read this article before. Not sure when or where, but I've read it before. Ummmm....anyone else?

MP|4.12.06 @ 9:11AM|#

Evan,

This appears to be an expansion of an earlier H&R post.

|4.12.06 @ 9:16AM|#

Remember Rex Stout's advice:
"A man who complains of the income tax because of the expense or the trouble it puts him in is merely a dog baring its teeth and forfeits the privileges of civilized discourse. But it is permissible to criticize it on other and impersonal grouds." And he follows

"A Governemtn like us spends money for three reasons, because it has to, because it wants to, and because it has it to spend. This one is the shabbiest. I predict that a great amount of it will be spent for that one reason."

God, how I miss the Nero Wolfe novels...

|4.12.06 @ 9:16AM|#

I get more libertarian each time I file my taxes. What a mess! And exactly why do they need this much of my money? Throw in state sales taxes and property taxes, and I'm surprised that I have anything left.

At this rate, I'll be an anarchist before I'm 50 :)

|4.12.06 @ 9:23AM|#

Of course, some things never change:

If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.

--Thomas Paine

|4.12.06 @ 9:33AM|#

Pro Liberace:

I wonder what his goiter thinks about it...

|4.12.06 @ 9:59AM|#

At this rate, I'll be an anarchist before I'm 50 :)

A semi-old-fart here; haven't filed a tax return for about 10 years.

The last straw was: got a threat-laced letter from the Republic incorrectly claiming that I owed them about $4K. When I went down to straighten it out the Dept. of Revenue manager was a total dickwad, pretending that he didn't know what "withholding" meant, etc., so I just said "See ya later."

|4.12.06 @ 11:21AM|#

Yes, Evian, what the heck does that mean? Did Thomas Paine have thyroid problems? Am I missing something?

|4.12.06 @ 11:41AM|#

I'm just ticked off because I already sent off my taxes and I realize that this year I forgot to write something insulting on the envelope and to include a tea bag in it. (I've been doing this for a few years; never gotten any hassle over it, probably because nobody ever looks at these things, but oh well.)

jaydee|4.12.06 @ 12:29PM|#

Rick Mercer sums it up pretty well.

|4.12.06 @ 1:22PM|#

I want to know why I have to fill out U.S. tax returns, even though I don't live in the U.S.? I mean, Canada doesn't tax Canadians living in the U.S. ... most civilized countries tax based on residence, not based on citizenship (like the U.S.).

|4.12.06 @ 1:36PM|#

That amounts to 22 cents for every dollar collected, about the same as in 2005 but up from 14 cents in 1990.

In fairness, rising real GDP will necessarily make the time one spends on one's taxes more expensive from year to year, because one's time is becoming more valuable. If the expense were down since 1990 that would be a real bummer.

|4.12.06 @ 1:39PM|#

Scratch my last post. I failed to account for the fact that tax revenues are going up at the same rate as the value of one's time, and that Jacob is talking about the expense of compliance in relation to total revenues collected.

|4.12.06 @ 2:19PM|#

Am I missing something?

His goiter is (was?) a frequent poster here.

|4.12.06 @ 2:22PM|#

No, no, rhywun, I know that. I meant, why was he using that moniker?

I think he's still around, by the way.

|4.12.06 @ 2:23PM|#

I want to know why I have to fill out U.S. tax returns, even though I don't live in the U.S.?

They don't leave you alone when you tell them your income isn't in real money? ;)

(Easy, easy, I have Canadian friends, and they say the same thing right back.)

|4.12.06 @ 2:24PM|#

A semi-old-fart here; haven't filed a tax return for about 10 years.

I hear this once in a while but I don't "get" it. Do such people *owe* taxes? And do my taxes increase because of it?

|4.12.06 @ 2:27PM|#

why was he using that moniker?

Ahh.... good question.

|4.12.06 @ 3:10PM|#

Rex Rhino at April 12, 2006 01:22 PM

The short answer is that while most tax codes suck the US tax code really, really sucks.

In all the years I lived in Canada I never once filed a US tax return (except the one year when I lived in the US for part of the year). Frankly it came as a surprise that I was supposed to.

Not that I would have actually owed anything, since you get a pretty decent deduction for foreign earned income. And it's not like I made that much.

The US is also practically the only country in the world that taxes businesses on their worldwide rather than just their domestic profits. This of course led to a lot of entertaining demagogery when pols went of on their jag of complaining about companies "moving offshore" to escape paying "their fair share" of taxes.